The blue feathers kinda blend with the background (top one, first shot). Also, I think a bit more contrast would be nice.
There are so many versions, I can't imagine how hard it is to decide.. Personally, I liked how the buildings stood out in the one with the darkest sky.. Great stuff, nonetheless!
Haha, Catachrirsm, you have no idea. Especially when working on it for 8 hour bursts, any kind of change looks better. That's why feedbacks so important right now!
Looking back i kinda like the dark clear sky better as you do, it just makes our chaotic scene and ships read a bit better. I may overlay the current sky and try various opacities simply because i hate making hard descisions. Finding a middle ground is a lot easier to take than saying "this idea was better!"
Anyway, back to making tons of other minute changes no one will notice
Have we thought about changing the color of the feathers in contrast to the background? If the lighting works better for a day time, maybe we can change the feather to... hmm.. orange?
Haha, killingpeople's comment about us not being able to finalize anything is ringing in my ear right now. Yeah, we can try changing the color of the feathers, but i really liked 'em blue myself, thought they harmonized the scene a bit, also makes 'em look shiny and somewhat reflective. But hey, with all the votes we have for a color change i'll give it a go, next shot will have orange feathers, hell, might go overboard and get multiple colors.
The original vision was to have various sized bird cages and multicolored feathers to imply different types of birds, not to mention various colors of eggs, so in a way this could be a return to concept
Yeah, there's also the fact that they have no obvious context because our bird cages are so far in the background. Might have to rearrange the composition or get rid of the feathers.
It's really hard trying to convey a desert environment, a city, it's livelyhood, giant flying ships, anchors and all that in two shots. Anyway, thanks for the feedback Nate, not what we wanted to hear, but valid nonetheless.
Sorry, I doesn'ts means to causes any troubles :poly134:
If you ask me, I honestly like the feathers blue, just not the exact blue they are right now. Imo, it might work better if they are crow feathers- dark blue/ purple color, also not so transparent. You could try making them more feathery, by having the color change through adding a fresnel/ inverted dot product in the diffuse/ emissive.
Also, your props are so high class, I personally would like to see them a bit better. You could, for instance, settle another little market just under the camera's nose (for shot 1). Dunno, you could take one of those buildings with the railing, set it up so that the cam is looking out (as if you are on a balcony or a platform of some sort) and settle those awesome hay rolls, cages and all that stuff there, coz they are all in the mid-ground right now, imo. This will also help "position" the viewer, and settle the scale, leaving any bits of hesitation out of the equation. Or perhaps you could just hit that close most feather with some close range dof..
The scene so unique, I don't think you need to explain everything to the audience; leave some for the imagination...
PS: Did I mention you should also not listen to everything I say, coz sometimes I is just silly. :poly121:
Thanks for the support and suggestion catachrism, been wanting to do it for a while but i've been letting the city street layout slow me down. So F it, markets can happen in the middle of the street, especially streets this wide! I certainly have to work on the composition though, not to mention Erich has a bridge coming in any day now just to mix things up even more! Yay for test compositions, lighting setups, material setups, lightmap UV cleanups, polycount reduction, asset revision, texture revision and creation, asset creation and importing, effect creation, and random other hitches all at the same time under a heated deadline!
Did a quick test run on red feathers, could have played around with 'em more but i was turned off enough by the initial result that i figured i wouldn't bother:
But hey if you guys like 'em enough, we can keep tooling around with 'em.
The sky's very plain in anticipation of some air battle effects, we'll probably have some cannon smoke and flak fire at the very least.
1. I dig this.
2. The feathers are much, much less intrusive and better used in these shots and in general I don't feel like you're over-doing it with things coming at the camera like they were before. I get the motion you're trying to convey with that and I think it's working now. The composition feels much more natural here.
Something about the anchor texture is bothering me a bit, what's it made out of? It looks a little muddy right now and with it so close to the camera, I'd like to see it a bit clearer.
Overall, good stuff, I'm looking forward to seeing the air effects!
Rockin', thanks for the feedback EM, good to hear someone thinks the feathers are working out better now.
The anchor is supposed to be a mixture of cast iron, steel, and wood, kinda like the pirate ships themselves. Expect to see a new texture on it in the near future! Should be more defined and thanks for the heads up
Current light bake should be done any second now ...
...
and done:
Now imma step away from this damned thing till Erich gets that bridge done . Break time!
Nah, chain would take too many tris, i also really like the rope. Making a variation of rope that isn't so spastic has been on the to do list for a bit.
The way i saw it, giant anchors hitting an object like rock steps might cause rope to jump and spring forward after being caught for a split second, but the anchor further ahead wouldn't necessarily be jumping ahead like that.
Basically the wiggly rope makes it look more chaotic and interesting, if a little more complicated, it's a trade off, we'll see where we take it.
Scaled back the chaos a bit, more emphasis on anchors, early shot of unfinished bridge(s):
Hmm, more like this then?
I'd have to find another spot to slip that ship in, in mid-air so the downed ship on the right has context.
Yeah, we can definitely tool the scene's colors with post process. What i'd like to do at the end is get a lot of hue adjustments together and have everyone vote on which one they like best. That way if we don't place we can blame it on you guys
Not to bizzy in all this crazyness, but enough chaos to make it interesting. Personally I think you need to decrease the amount of "stuff" you are showing in one shot. There is way to much things to look at and your eyes don't get a chance to rest. Probably something someone else has meantioned, but this thread is so long and I'm too lazy to read everything :P
Increased the depth fog, should take the detail down a bit, as well as adjusted its height to cover a larger range of the scene so the dropoff isn't so hard. Hope that helps simplify the scene a bit.
Also did some smoke clouds and finally got some spolsions in there pretty stoked.
Took the bridge out for now till it's more finished. This is the first time in a long while we're actually about at the tri limit, feels good.
Edit: So i did lots of tweaks and added cool smoke effects and i can't even remember what over the past 2 hours... and then crash
#*$(&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope i can remember everything i changed #*($&#$(&#$
I love the lighting colors and the skybox. They work nicely together. Really, one day i'll think of that ambiance maybe for some of my environments
Still it is hard to read the image as to me. Market on the 2nd shot (with feathers) seems to be the most important piece while it is not according to the plan :P
I changed my mind, for shits and giggles wanted to see if we could have finished by the time of the original due date, not going to lose sleep over it, but it's more or less there. So here's the new close shot that we'll be fine tuning over the final 7 days:
Lots of lighting tweaks to be made here, as with material tweaks. Mostly toning stuff down and polishing.
Made some flora:
Still have a good bit planned: "for sale" signs for the bazaar area to explain its purpose. We'd like to have a semi destroyed building on the left side, broken apart down the middle by anchors. An anchor that's in the midfield with its rope broken, more decals for the foreground to kick up the realism, flak fire for the defending ships, and of course finish up the bridge. Might come up with something for the bridge to cross over, like a stream, or a fissure in the ground, who knows, we'll see if we have the time. I'm pretty stoked with how far we've pushed the scene so i'm not going to stress this last week
Ok so like save this!!!!
I am digging everything.
if you want to mess with the lighting more go for it but I REALLY like the lighting for this last post. I really like how everything looks and feels. It really makes a mood.
the huge draped cloth running from the top of the towers into the streets have been boggling me. I really don't think those are working, but that's just me.
Just about there, in fact aside from post process tweeks, and some wore on the foreground,I think we're just about done.
First off, the fog volume's been lowered, lemme know if you guys liked the cloudier but harmonized earlier version, i wanted a crisper desert sky.
Tried to take everyone's feedback into account for the following shots:
And here's how it looks with no fog at all:
Any crits, suggestions? Fog or no fog?
Man, I got dizzy form those images getting updated so fast..
From the new ones, shot 1 is definitely my fav so far: it's got the props, the depth, the color, the sky and all pretty much nailed down.
The fog in shot 2 is overtaking the scene a bit, also I think the cam should be lower, looking up more (like 5 degs or something), which would also frame the ships a bit better. Other than that.. 8)
I think you've got a version for the likings of pretty much every single person who's ever seen this thread.
- playing with some jet streams
- tone down white smoke
- dust buildup at stairs
- bigger explosion on the tower
- I'd tone down the fog a tad (looks good in the first one)
- bushes to bring in the eye and balance the composition - was too much negative space I felt on the right side. This formation bring the eye in fairly nice.. /shrug
My buddy glenn did a quick paintover, thinks I should add a revine to the foreground. I was going to be lazy and just fill that area in with another broken anchor, or a crater from a cannonball.
Watcha guys think? Any other ideas for what could go there? Or is the ravine worth the effort?
Kinda burned out, input is appreciated, just want this sucker done.
Done. It's been fun. And super duper tiring. But Jeff pushed the button and it is officially in the pile along with all the other amazing projects waiting to be judged. We're stoked! Not bad for students. Hope you guys enjoy!
Been a hell of a ride competing against you guys. Best of luck to everyone, this forum kicked some major ass this year. Maybe too much ass, loads of entries have what it takes to be winners and some teams are bound to be short changed.
However the die tumbles it's been a hell of a ride. Special shout out goes to killing people for his paintovers which made a substantial difference in how we finished this sucker and to professorXXX for the super cool Zbrush videos, hope you're doing well! To everyone who provided support and feedback over the past 2 months, thank you so much!
It's great 3d but the composition doesn't give me a focal point. my eyes are wandering trying to find what's important. I would suggest framing the ship in the moon like previously mentioned and cooling the whole image down then making the ship and anchor have the warm/warmest objects.
on a side note love the smiley face on the anchor. great touch.
Thanks for the continued interest in this thread everyone, we were sitting on page three and it was kind of a bummer, nice to see this get a bump!
Anothony, 3dskillet, Catachrism: Thanks big time, that means a lot coming from you guys, great artists all of you. Me and Erich are trying not to get our hopes up, there's some phenomenal entries out there and making it anywhere in the top 7 would mean the world to us.
Jojones: Completely agree. Our scene suffered a lot from not simply having a basic composition from the get go, live and learn. Our scene was very unconventional in execution and concept which made it hard to pull off. Not blocky and modular, not a generic fantasy or scifi setting, and a lot of stuff done by the seat of our pants as we moved forward. Learned a lot and it was tons of fun, this was a unique opportunity for us as students to just have fun with 3d and try something new. All that said, can't wait to start a new scene that's a generic fantasy setting and have something for the 'folio .
Replies
There are so many versions, I can't imagine how hard it is to decide.. Personally, I liked how the buildings stood out in the one with the darkest sky..
Great stuff, nonetheless!
Looking back i kinda like the dark clear sky better as you do, it just makes our chaotic scene and ships read a bit better. I may overlay the current sky and try various opacities simply because i hate making hard descisions. Finding a middle ground is a lot easier to take than saying "this idea was better!"
Anyway, back to making tons of other minute changes no one will notice
The original vision was to have various sized bird cages and multicolored feathers to imply different types of birds, not to mention various colors of eggs, so in a way this could be a return to concept
It's really hard trying to convey a desert environment, a city, it's livelyhood, giant flying ships, anchors and all that in two shots. Anyway, thanks for the feedback Nate, not what we wanted to hear, but valid nonetheless.
If you ask me, I honestly like the feathers blue, just not the exact blue they are right now. Imo, it might work better if they are crow feathers- dark blue/ purple color, also not so transparent. You could try making them more feathery, by having the color change through adding a fresnel/ inverted dot product in the diffuse/ emissive.
Also, your props are so high class, I personally would like to see them a bit better. You could, for instance, settle another little market just under the camera's nose (for shot 1). Dunno, you could take one of those buildings with the railing, set it up so that the cam is looking out (as if you are on a balcony or a platform of some sort) and settle those awesome hay rolls, cages and all that stuff there, coz they are all in the mid-ground right now, imo. This will also help "position" the viewer, and settle the scale, leaving any bits of hesitation out of the equation. Or perhaps you could just hit that close most feather with some close range dof..
The scene so unique, I don't think you need to explain everything to the audience; leave some for the imagination...
PS: Did I mention you should also not listen to everything I say, coz sometimes I is just silly. :poly121:
Did a quick test run on red feathers, could have played around with 'em more but i was turned off enough by the initial result that i figured i wouldn't bother:
But hey if you guys like 'em enough, we can keep tooling around with 'em.
The sky's very plain in anticipation of some air battle effects, we'll probably have some cannon smoke and flak fire at the very least.
2. The feathers are much, much less intrusive and better used in these shots and in general I don't feel like you're over-doing it with things coming at the camera like they were before. I get the motion you're trying to convey with that and I think it's working now. The composition feels much more natural here.
Something about the anchor texture is bothering me a bit, what's it made out of? It looks a little muddy right now and with it so close to the camera, I'd like to see it a bit clearer.
Overall, good stuff, I'm looking forward to seeing the air effects!
The anchor is supposed to be a mixture of cast iron, steel, and wood, kinda like the pirate ships themselves. Expect to see a new texture on it in the near future! Should be more defined and thanks for the heads up
Current light bake should be done any second now ...
...
and done:
Now imma step away from this damned thing till Erich gets that bridge done
...you know Jeff... He has a point there. Make a chain? haha.
The way i saw it, giant anchors hitting an object like rock steps might cause rope to jump and spring forward after being caught for a split second, but the anchor further ahead wouldn't necessarily be jumping ahead like that.
Basically the wiggly rope makes it look more chaotic and interesting, if a little more complicated, it's a trade off, we'll see where we take it.
Scaled back the chaos a bit, more emphasis on anchors, early shot of unfinished bridge(s):
Great progress!
as soon as I look at it in full it flattens out again.
that said, I like that airship and would hate to see it go
aside from that, I think the color pallet is absolutely gorgeous
I love the Dali feel to it
I'd have to find another spot to slip that ship in, in mid-air so the downed ship on the right has context.
Yeah, we can definitely tool the scene's colors with post process. What i'd like to do at the end is get a lot of hue adjustments together and have everyone vote on which one they like best. That way if we don't place we can blame it on you guys
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2426/4098456742_df60362257_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3496/4061683245_8aa640a566_b.jpg
Not to bizzy in all this crazyness, but enough chaos to make it interesting. Personally I think you need to decrease the amount of "stuff" you are showing in one shot. There is way to much things to look at and your eyes don't get a chance to rest. Probably something someone else has meantioned, but this thread is so long and I'm too lazy to read everything :P
Also did some smoke clouds and finally got some spolsions in there pretty stoked.
Took the bridge out for now till it's more finished. This is the first time in a long while we're actually about at the tri limit, feels good.
Edit: So i did lots of tweaks and added cool smoke effects and i can't even remember what over the past 2 hours... and then crash
#*$(&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope i can remember everything i changed #*($&#$(&#$
Many, many changes.
but ............... oh my ...................... !!!!
words are escaping me
I love the lighting colors and the skybox. They work nicely together. Really, one day i'll think of that ambiance maybe for some of my environments
Still it is hard to read the image as to me. Market on the 2nd shot (with feathers) seems to be the most important piece while it is not according to the plan :P
Lots of lighting tweaks to be made here, as with material tweaks. Mostly toning stuff down and polishing.
Made some flora:
Still have a good bit planned: "for sale" signs for the bazaar area to explain its purpose. We'd like to have a semi destroyed building on the left side, broken apart down the middle by anchors. An anchor that's in the midfield with its rope broken, more decals for the foreground to kick up the realism, flak fire for the defending ships, and of course finish up the bridge. Might come up with something for the bridge to cross over, like a stream, or a fissure in the ground, who knows, we'll see if we have the time. I'm pretty stoked with how far we've pushed the scene so i'm not going to stress this last week
I am digging everything.
if you want to mess with the lighting more go for it but I REALLY like the lighting for this last post. I really like how everything looks and feels. It really makes a mood.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2656/4107419020_cbef7830fa_b.jpg
Love the whole left side of this image:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2797/4108370912_8fca54e917_b.jpg
the huge draped cloth running from the top of the towers into the streets have been boggling me. I really don't think those are working, but that's just me.
First off, the fog volume's been lowered, lemme know if you guys liked the cloudier but harmonized earlier version, i wanted a crisper desert sky.
Tried to take everyone's feedback into account for the following shots:
And here's how it looks with no fog at all:
Any crits, suggestions? Fog or no fog?
From the new ones, shot 1 is definitely my fav so far: it's got the props, the depth, the color, the sky and all pretty much nailed down.
The fog in shot 2 is overtaking the scene a bit, also I think the cam should be lower, looking up more (like 5 degs or something), which would also frame the ships a bit better. Other than that.. 8)
I think you've got a version for the likings of pretty much every single person who's ever seen this thread.
- playing with some jet streams
- tone down white smoke
- dust buildup at stairs
- bigger explosion on the tower
- I'd tone down the fog a tad (looks good in the first one)
- bushes to bring in the eye and balance the composition - was too much negative space I felt on the right side. This formation bring the eye in fairly nice.. /shrug
done. I think the ship in the upper right might be a little too crazy now, but i'm going to give it some time for now.
Watcha guys think? Any other ideas for what could go there? Or is the ravine worth the effort?
Kinda burned out, input is appreciated, just want this sucker done.
Turns out decals take tris, i didn't know htis, disabeled decals on some choice objects and kapow! 20k tries gone.
However the die tumbles it's been a hell of a ride. Special shout out goes to killing people for his paintovers which made a substantial difference in how we finished this sucker and to professorXXX for the super cool Zbrush videos, hope you're doing well! To everyone who provided support and feedback over the past 2 months, thank you so much!
CHEERS! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S OVER!!!!!!
great choices on the beauty shots
looks like a winner to me
Smells like a big prize.
on a side note love the smiley face on the anchor. great touch.
Anothony, 3dskillet, Catachrism: Thanks big time, that means a lot coming from you guys, great artists all of you. Me and Erich are trying not to get our hopes up, there's some phenomenal entries out there and making it anywhere in the top 7 would mean the world to us.
Jojones: Completely agree. Our scene suffered a lot from not simply having a basic composition from the get go, live and learn. Our scene was very unconventional in execution and concept which made it hard to pull off. Not blocky and modular, not a generic fantasy or scifi setting, and a lot of stuff done by the seat of our pants as we moved forward. Learned a lot and it was tons of fun, this was a unique opportunity for us as students to just have fun with 3d and try something new. All that said, can't wait to start a new scene that's a generic fantasy setting and have something for the 'folio